Morning Musume -- Xmas Medley and 60s Hits/Hello Project -- Kayo Medley (Courtesy of "HAPPY Xmas SHOW")

 

Not an article about a song per se but more on a special performance by Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）. Yesterday, I wrote about Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Christmas wa Issho ni"（クリスマスは一緒に）which was used as an ending theme in 2006 for the annual NTV Yuletide special "HAPPY Xmas SHOW" that ran for half a decade in the 2000s.

Well, I'd actually come across the above video once before some years ago but it was yesterday that I decided that it could be used for a KKP article. In the inaugural 2003 edition, Morning Musume joined the proceedings to perform not only the usual Xmas tunes but also some of the 1960s hits by female singing groups such as The Supremes and The Ronettes. Near the end of the video, there's even a special guest appearance by Anri（杏里）.

The following year in 2004, the show was broadcast right on Xmas Day with three members of Hello! Project (two of them graduates from Morning Musume): Miki Fujimoto（藤本美貴）, Maki Goto（後藤真希）and Aya Matsuura（松浦亜弥）providing a medley of some of the kayo kyoku of the 1950s and 1960s originally recorded by singers such as Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）and Izumi Yukimura（雪村いづみ）. The performance starts at around 2:00.